


Tragic Lives

by BookMonsterEliz



Series: Pacific Rim Bandom AU [1]
Category: Bandom, Cobra Starship, Fall Out Boy, Gym Class Heroes, My Chemical Romance, Pacific Rim (Movies), Panic! at the Disco, Paramore, The Academy Is...
Genre: Alternate Universe - Pacific Rim Fusion, F/M, Jaegers (Pacific Rim), Kaiju (Pacific Rim), M/M, bandom shenanigans, pacific rim bandom au, real story revolves around fob and mcr, this was just a plot bunny
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-28
Updated: 2018-04-28
Packaged: 2019-04-28 22:30:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14459166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BookMonsterEliz/pseuds/BookMonsterEliz
Summary: I saw the new Pacific Rim movie and it was awesome and I wanted to read about bandom adventures in this world but I could only find one. So of course, that's a problem, and if I'm not willing to do my part to fix it who am I to bitch about it?Basic thought is that the bandom crews get drafted after the first few kaiju attacks. I had to fudge it a bit to keep bands together, creating units instead of just 2 or 3 men crews, but this does seem to kinda work with the second movie. Anyways, it's a thought, feel free to take the idea and run with it.





	1. Files of the Pan Pacific Defense Corp

**Author's Note:**

> This is just a plot bunny and I may never write more about it again, depends on how the muse hits, you know? So, pleeeeeeease, take the idea and run with it, and let me know so I can read your Pacific Rim bandom au's!!!!!!

***************CONFIDENTIAL********************

Files of the Pan Pacific Defense Corp: 

There is high drift compatibility between units, the members can switch up between Jaegers if needed. This happens in case a pilot becomes ill or injured. They switch members during practice simulations to prepare for this possibility. Some units, such as Delta Unit, like to routinely switch around who is in which Jaeger. Both jaegers usually deploy together and work as a team, having each other's backs. Each unit shares a barracks room. 

There is some drift compatibility across units, and team members practice across units on occasion. The most frequent cases are William Beckett/Gabe Saporta/Travis McCoy, Gabe Saporta/Pete Wentz/Mikey Way. Units Epsilon and Delta frequently trade members during practice and are often joined by Ryan Ross. Pete Wentz is an insomniac and will drift with whoever is available to practice.

Drift Compatibility of 75-100%:  
Pete Wentz has high drift compatibility with Michael Way and Gabe Saporta. Gabe Saporta has high compatibility with William Beckett, Michael Way, Travis McCoy, and Pete Wentz. William Beckett has high DC scores with Gabe Saporta and Travis McCoy. Gerard Way has high dc with Lyndsey Ballatto and Bert McCracken, both of whom are now stationed in the LA Shatterdome, their units were recently transferred to make room for the units from Chicago.

Drift Compatibility of 60-74%:  
Units Epsilon and Delta have dc scores in the upper median range, and often practice together. Ryan Ross has median drift compatibility with all of Unit Epsilon. Brendon Urie has median dc with Unit Alpha.

Drift Compatibility Range or 50-59%:  
Victoria Asher has median dc with Jon Walker and Patrick Stump. Patrick Stump has median dc with some of the members of Units Delta and Gamma, and Travis McCoy. Gerard Way has median dc with Gabe Saporta (though their simulations have spectacularly high fail rates). Pete Wentz has median dc with basically every pilot in the Shatterdome.

The Way brothers have the highest drift compatibility score at 97%. The second highest goes to Pete Wentz and Patrick Stump at 94%, something that the training sargents did not see coming. 

Some of the units have members that sub out, Unit Beta had Matt and Bob Bryar but both lost optimal dc and were restationed. 

They are all stationed at the New Jersey Shatterdome, though some have been transferred from a training facility in Chicago. 

 

Unit Alpha:   
Jaeger: Fall Out Boy  
Special Weapons: Dual Swords  
Pilots: Andy Hurley/Joseph Trohman

Jaeger: Folie a Deux  
Pilots: Pete Wentz/Patrick Stump

 

Unit Beta:  
Jaeger: Chemical Romance  
Pilots: Gerard Way/Michael (Mikey) Way

Jaeger: The Black Parade  
Pilots: Ray Torro/Frank Iero

 

Unit Gamma:   
Jaeger: Green Man  
Pilots: Ryan Ross/Spencer Smith 

Jaeger: Disco Panic!  
Pilots: Brendon Urie/Dallon Weekes   
Note: Jon Walker alternates for both. The General has not commissioned a 3 man Jaeger as he feels they function best as 2 man duos, this unit's simulations with three do not have a high success rate in the simulator. The strongest teams for this unit are a combination of Ross, Smith and Urie. 

 

Unit Delta:   
Jaeger: Hot Mess  
Pilots: Gabe Saporta/Nate Navarro/Victoria Asher

Jager: Cobra Starship  
Pilots: Alex Suarez/Ryan Blackington   
Note: These rosters are not definite, the pilots like to keep on a constant rotation, more so than the other units. This is Gabe Saporta's second assignment, he lost his first crew after the Midtown Jaeger incident. After spending time on leave in the southwest, he passed the eval and was reassigned.

 

Unit Epsilon:   
Jaeger: Santi  
Pilots: William Beckett/Adam T. Siska/Andrew Mrotek (aka The Butcher)

Jaeger: Fast Times  
Pilots: Michael Guy Chislett/Michael Carden

 

Unit Zeta:  
Jaeger: Paramoure  
Pilots: Hayley Williams/Taylor York/Zac Farro

 

Unit Iota:  
Jaeger: Blurryface  
Pilots: Josh Dunn/Tyler Joseph

 

Unit Kappa:   
Jaeger: Papercut  
Pilots: Travis McCoy/Matt McGinley

Jaeger: Cruel Children  
Pilots: Disashi Lumumba-Kasongo/Milo Bonacci

 

Unit Lambda: The Used  
Unit Mu: MSI


	2. Alone Together

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pete Wentz, erstwhile Prince of Punk, now has his sights set on become a star by becoming a jaeger pilot and saving the world. First, however, he has to find someone drift compatible.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, personally, I don't really ship Pete/Patrick as anything more than friends. So, that's whatcha get. 
> 
> Please ignore any grammar, spelling, or formatting errors. I didn't do this in word, and google docs isn't the best for that stuff.

Pete Wentz was driving his drill instructors crazy, and he knew it. There were about 200 recruits in the Chicago training camp going through basic training and most of them had their hearts set on being a Jeager pilot. The problem was, there's only so many slots available for that MOS as Jaegers are expensive as hell and they're only going to put the best of the best into the giant fighting machines. Those that didn't make the cut would just move on to train in support roles.

Pete had the highest scores in his unit for combat strategy and hand to hand combat, which was good, great even. It should, in theory, make him a real contender for the Jaeger program. This, however, wasn't the only thing the instructors were looking at. In order to pilot a Jaeger, you had to drift with someone, and to do that you had to be drift compatible. There was a whole scale of percentages, with 50% as the minimum, as a medium dc. Ideally, they wanted you to be in the range of 80% dc or higher to actually pilot with someone. They were trying to form units of at least 4 pilots, with two to three to a jeager, which meant that they were looking for recruits that had a shared high drift compatibility with at least three other recruits. This is where Pete's problem began.

Pete didn't completely understand the science of drift compatibility, there was a bunch of sciency, psychological mumbo jumbo involved that he really didn't care about. He wasn't too concerned about the technicalities, he was more concerned about the feel of it. Drift compatibility was something that came naturally to Pete. He was a people person. To him, it was just a connection, one person to another. 

When he sparred, he watched his opponent, learned from them, and moved with them. As a result, he was drift compatible to some degree with all of the people they tried to pair him with, though never with a percentage high enough to qualify for piloting together. They were nearing the end of the compatibility trials, and if he didn't find someone he was drift compatible with soon he'd be sidelined to a support role. That was something he just couldn't let happen.

The highest drift compatibility test he'd had so far had been with Joe Trohman, at 78%. He liked Joe, he was a cool guy. He was laid back, with an absolutely biting, witty sense of humor, and he liked to party. They had met before recruitment, in the local music scene, and had a few friends in common. In hand to hand combat Joe used a tight defense and calculated strikes, which helped even out Pete's own more erratic attack style of getting up close and personal as fast as possible. Working together in the simulator had gone well because they were both calculated, just in different ways. Joe liked to look for his opponents weakness and go for it, Pete liked to look for his opponents strengths, and counter it. 

Pete was pretty sure that he was Joe's highest percent match as well, and they'd decided to meet up and practice on their personal time. They were hoping that practicing together and getting to know each other would up their dc% into a qualifying number. 

"Hey man!" Joe greeted him as they met outside of one of the training rooms they'd reserved for an hour.   
"Hey! How's it going?" Pete responded, turning the slap of a handshake into a hug.  
"Good. Ready to have a bit of fun. How about you?" Joe asked as they entered the training room.  
"Can't complain. I've been looking forward to this all day."   
"Yeah? Me too." Joe replied as they toed of their shoes and stopped to stretch. 

They walked through the basic standard fight positions together, getting a feel of how the other moved. Pete always enjoyed sparring, but he found himself surprised at how well he seemed to flow with Joe. He was pleased to find that Joe wasn't afraid to laugh at being dumped on his ass, and was quick to offer a hand up when Pete found himself sprawled across the mat. He also wasn't too proud to take pointers, and wasn't an asshole about giving them either. The hour flew by, and before they knew it they were lacing their boots back up and heading towards the door.

"Hey, I was going to swing by that cantina after this, wanna come with?" Pete asked.  
"Yeah, sure. I could eat." Joe agreed, pulling his hands through his short mop of curls. 

They chatted about a lot of mundane things before settling into the topic of music. He'd seen Joe around the music scene plenty of times before the world had gone to shit and they'd been drafted and Joe had never been shy about being Arma Angulus' top fan. It was good to catch up and reminisce. Joe was pretty good with a guitar himself and had ideas for forming a band in the barracks. Pete also learned he wasn't the only one he'd talked about music with that day. 

"Hey, speaking of rock, I had an interesting conversation about Neurosis in the library during study period today." Joe said, a grin slowly stretching across his face.  
"Yeah?"  
"Yeah, Tim and I were arguing about how to classify them and this guy totaly stepped in and blew us both out of the water. Dude, you should have been there, it was great."  
"Man, I'm sorry I missed it."  
"I'll have to intoduce you to him, he knows a shit ton about music. He plays too, drums and guitar, and I think he sings."  
"That's awesome. Is he trying for pilot?" Pete asked, curious.  
"No, he said he's gunning for a support role, wants to end up in the command center, helping mobalize the Jaegers."   
"Well, that's pretty cool. It's an important job."   
"Yeah! I'll have to invite him to hang with us sometime. Well, I've gotta get going, I need to finish an essay for Lt. Haver's class." Joe said.  
"Ah, good luck, dude. She's a real hardass. I had a good time hanging with you. I think we could make this work, give ourselves a real shot."   
"Hell yeah! I'll see if I can book us some time in the simulator today, is evening ok?"  
"Sure. Comm me and let me know, I'll be there!" Pete said, smile on his face. 

Joe readily agreed, and Pete's comm beeped by 22:00 that night with a message from Joe telling him he'd booked the third simulator room for them for 18:30 the next day. Pete felt optimistic, he just knew this was going to work out for them. Sleep didn't come any easier than it usually did, but for the first time in a long time, Pete didn't spend the night fretting. 

The next day flew past, and Pete found himself standing infront of the simulator room a few mnutes early and decided to wait to go in. Before long Joe crashed around the corner, limbs flailing, obviously running late. Pete laughed and waved him over.

"Joe! Hey, where's the fire, dude?"  
"Hey Pete. My unit got held up at drill line, some idiot kept falling out and messing us all up. You know how it goes. Am I late?"  
"Nah, it's fine dude. The room's still in use, wanna go watch?"  
"Yeah, sure. Don't want them cutting into our time."

They slipped quietly into the room, and the person at the control station held up a finger at them, demanding quiet without bothering to turn and actually acknowledge them. They stayed by the door and watched the wide screen display as the two recruits strapped into the simulator fought a kaiju. It was a cat 2 that had been defeated by one of the Russian Jaegers about a month before, and the duo in the simulator were holding their own against the massive beast. 

The kid at the command center helped coach them through it, warning them to watch their six, and giving advice on when to fire the simulation's cannon. Pete thought he had a great instinct for the timing and ended up watching the kid at the controls as much as he was watching Beckett and Siska. It didn't take much longer for the kaiju to go down, and the guy at the controls congratulated the pilots in training before moving to greet them. He was shorter than Pete was expecting and was partially out of uniform, wearing a ridiculous argyle sweater vest and had a trucker hat pulled low over his orange hair. Thick white socks peeked out from the tops of his shoes.

"Hey Patrick, I was hoping you'd be the one running the simulator today!" Joe said with a wide smile, reaching forward to warmly clasp arms with the shorter recruit.  
"Yeah, good to see you! I have to log practice hours too you know."   
"I want to introduce you to my friend Pete Wentz. Pete, this is Patrick, the guy I was telling you about." 

Pete stepped forward, offering his hand. Patrick looked at him critically from beneath the brim of his hat, and didn't look at all impressed by what he was seeing.

"I thought you'd be taller." 

Pete let out a bark of laughter, not sure how to react. Patrick didn't seem to need a response, and got them logged in, handing over the palm scanners and confirming their commission numbers. 

"Come on, let's go get you guys strapped in." Patrick said, ushering them around the console.

Beckett and Siska had unhooked themselves and were just lounging around the sim deck discussing their battle strategy. Pete and Joe both knew them. Pete had actually scored decently well with Beckett, but the other had already tested high with Siska, his childhood friend, and wasn't looking for a partner. The pair were happy to scatter after a brief greeting and a few words with Patrick, who they seemed to know very well, leaving Joe and Pete to the simulator. 

Patrick made sure that they were strapped in correctly before moving back to the console. 

"Ok, you ready?" Joe asked Pete.  
"Oh yeah! Bring it!" Pete answered with a smile.

They plugged into the neural network together. The neural handshake flew by in a rush. Some recruits hated this but Pete didn't mind so much. He was used to letting his emotions spill out, the high ups and dark downs, used to writing them down, screaming them out, picking them apart in his bunk on sleepless nights. The rush of the neural handshake was just a new way, and it wasn't so bad because he had someone else there to share half the load, a reason to push though. 

His memories and feelings as well as Joe's rushed past and he let them flow, a raging hurricane, staying in the calm eye of the storm, refusing to chase rabbits. Some of his and Joe's memories flowed together, and he felt himself lifted up in the crowd of a particularly amped up Arma show, saw himself on the stage shredding it, remembered how it felt to scream out his pain, but he knew better than trying to relive it, and just let it slip by, holding tight to the high it brought. He didn't look too closely at Joe's memories, and the connection took hold.

Patrick's smooth voice met them on the other side of the handshake, a firm anchor.

"Nice handshake guys, you've got a strong neural connection, 81%. Kaiju spotted 3 clicks to the Northwest, heading towards Miami. It's a level 1, designation Ares." Patrick said, voice to their right, and echoing in their headset a half second behind.

Pete listened with half an ear while Patrick listed the kaiju's important attributes as he and Joe ran in step with each other. He'd run this particular simulation a few times already, he knew that the beast's weak spot was in it's stomach, which was a bitch to reach because of it's small size and fast speed. He knew, instinctively, that Joe knew this as well. 

It didn't take long for them to reach the kaiju. They blasted off a few shots that definitely got it's attention. It turned and charged them, and they worked together to jump over it, sending a plasma blast at it as it rolled under them.

"That hit only landed minimal damage, it's back is it's most well protected spot. You'll want to get in closer." Patrick informed them.  
"No shit." Pete mumbled, as he and Joe planted their feet wide as the kaiju made a sharp turn back towards them. 

Pete lost himself in the dance with the beast, moving seamlessly with Joe. They let it jump towards it, reaching a fist up together to catch it under it's strong ugly jaw, watching it fly backwards on the holodisplay. They sprang forward, not willing to let it get too far away. They weren't quite fast enough to prevent it from getting back up on it's feet, and it lashed out at them, claws raking towards their exoskeleton's chest. They ducked into the attack, grappling the beast, but not before it got in a hit. Patrick's voice in their ear warned that they'd lost 15% functionality, information they took in but didn't dwell on. 

They grappled with the beast as it darted in and out of range, Joe and Pete intent on landing hits to it's softer underbelly, but most of their missles were being deflected by it turning at the last second, and they were landing hits to it's flank. This was slowing it down some, but mostly served to make it angry.

"Hey, I have an idea." Joe said.  
Pete cocked his head, not having to speak for Joe to know that he was interested.  
"Ever played with the plasma sword?" Joe asked.  
"Fuck yeah!" Pete responded.  
"Patrick, can you mod that in?" Joe asked.  
"Uh, yeah, sure, give me a sec." Patrick responded.

It went online a few moments later, as Pete and Joe were hurling the kaiju away, slamming it into the rocky shore of an islet, Miami's glittering skyline visible in the background of the holoscreen.

They enabled it, right fists clenching together. They advanced on the creature as it ran towards them. Pete let Joe take the lead as he'd obviously done this before. He felt the weight of the sword in the armour around his arm, but instead of letting the sword drag behind them, ready to swing forward, Joe had them hold it to the side, and it didn't take Pete long at all to catch onto his intent. They were going to use the kaiju's speed against it, meet it in the middle with the edge of the sword, hopefully splitting it.   
It worked like a dream. They fired a volley of missells just before it reached them and the beast twisted as it lept towards them, rolling it's shoulder forward, enabling them to swing the sword around, catching it in it's now exposed underbelly. Joe and Pete leaned into the swing, and they ended up spinning into a tight circle, and it was weirdly like spinning around on stage with their guitar's in hand. The kaiju screamed and thrashed, falling off the sward and into the shallow water off the Miami shoreline, but it didn't rise again, and they both cheered. 

"Alright, great job guys." Patrick's voice brought them back to the present, and Pete remembered with a shock that he was just in a simulation.

They only spent a few minutes debriefing, as there wasn't that much to say since they were successful. Patrick had a few tips that were good, and agreed to let them use the sword on the next simulation. 

The next simulation generated a level 3 kaiju, a newer one that had been defeated only days before. Neither of them remembered exactly how it had een taken down, but the point of the sim wasn't to recreate a kill but to kill it themselves. It was huge and bulky with strong skin and stronger jaws. 

The sim put them in downtown LA, where they had a landscape of high rises to navigate. This ended up being their downfall. There wasn't room amid the high rises to really wield the sword without knocking down a few buildings, something neither Joe or Pete was keen on. The word civilian kept bouncing between them through the neural handshake. The kaiju, of course, had no such qualms and downed quite a few buildings. They played cat and mouse with it. They had it cornered, and powered up the laser canon to take it out, but acted too slowly as it dove sideways into a building with an enraged roar, it's strong tail whipping around to smack into them as they let the shot loose, directing it into another building.

The simulation lasted barely five minutes before the screen went red and black as the kaiju slammed them into a building, impaling their jaeger onto it. 

"Damn it!" Pete cried.  
"Aw, man! We almost had it too!"   
They had finally been making progress, having gotten in close, but the beast had turned the tables on them.  
"When you're in the city, don't be afraid to use your surroundings. The kaiju certanly will." Patrick said.  
"I hate city fights. I'm always nervous about civilians," Joe replied, sighing.  
Pete nodded in agreement, "Yeah, I don't want to hurt them."  
"Keep in mind that they would have been warned and evacuated. If they're still there, not much that we can do but defeat the kaiju as quickly as possible," Patrick said.  
"Kinda hard to do when it's hiding from you," Pete snarked.  
"Yeah, but they're not hiding, they're hunting you. Gotta watch out getting in too close with the newer level 3's," Patrick said, voice cool in their ears, "They'll slam you around if you let them."   
"I'd like to see you try this shit," Pete muttered.   
"Excuse me?" Patrick asked, taken aback.  
"I'd like to see you do better. You're full of good ideas on how to beat the kaiju, ever put them into practice, Patrick?" Pete challenged.  
"This is me getting in my simulator practice, Pete. I don't want to be a pilot."  
"You don't have to want to be a pilot. You're full of ideas but have you ever tried them out yourself to see how hard this shit really is?"

Patrick just glared at him, eyes narrow behind his glasses, lips pinched into a thin line.

"I have been in the simulator before, thank you."  
"More than once?" Pete pressed.   
"I don't see how that's relevant. Now, do you want to redo the simulation, or should I run an easier one?" Patrick asked, done with the conversation.  
"I want a redo."   
"Great."   
"With you in it."  
"Oh my god, Pete! I can't run the simulator and fight kaiju at the same time. Besides, it's a two person sim unit, and you have Joe, right there." Patrick said, gesturing at Joe, who had been intently watching the conversation with an unreadale expression on his face.  
"I can man the console," Joe said, "I've done it before."   
"No, I'm not butting into your practice session." Patrick said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Joe.  
"I think you should do it." Joe said, the corner of his mouth quirking up into a smile.  
"Why?" Patrick asked.  
"Because Pete's a crazy dude that loves to get tangled up in hair brained ideas, and once he gets one in his head he doesn't quit. I'm currently sharing brainwaves with said idiot so I know for a fact that he's not going to quit whining until he gets his way. So like, do it for me, dude. Please. It's just one sim, what's the harm?"  
"Besides, it's not butting in if you're invited." Pete said with what was supposed to be a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.  
"Oh my god, what has my life become?!" Patrick moaned.  
"Pleeeeeaaaase? Just give it a try, kick this nasty kaiju's butt with me, Pattycakes." Pete pleaded.  
"First, never call me that ever again. Ever. Second, if I do this, it's just a one time thing."   
"Sure, I can do that." Pete said, grin wide and easy.  
"Third, I don't want you telling anyone about this, ok?"  
"Fine." Pete agreed.  
"Joe?" Patrick asked.  
"Yeah, my lips are sealed dude, but I honestly don't see what the big deal is. It's just one sim run." Joe said, pushing in the control to sever the neural handshake between him and Pete. 

Patrick punched in the commands to rerun the simulation with himself instead of Joe in slot 2 as Joe untangled himself from the arm and leg braces, stretching once he was free. Pete snuck a glance at Patrick as he stepped into the simulator rig. The other recruit had a serious frown on his face as he double checked his connections. Pete thought he looked really young without his hat on. Patrick caught him looking and narrowed his eyes and Pete merely smiled back.

"Ready?" Pete asked.  
"I guess I better be." Patrick said, sighing, "Ok, initiate neural handshake." 

The machine sprung to life around them and promptly bled out of focus as the neural handshake commenced. Pete felt the storm of emotions and memories rise up through him, but this time it felt different than any other neural handshake, the rush was stronger. He always likened it to a hurricane, but this made every other handshake feel like a small tornado, with this as the biggest hurricane imaginable, it's calm eye nowhere in sight. 

Pete struggled not to get swept into the memory of the time he'd fallen into a depressed down sweep at the age of thirteen when he'd been surrounded by friends at summer camp, but felt so so alone, surrounded by all of his so called friends. No, he couldn't relive it, shouldn't fall down the rabbit hole. He let the memory slip by, panting with the effort, reaching out mentally for Patrick.

Pete immediately found him, in the center of the mental storm, his memories and feelings just as strong and vibrant as Pete's, flooding them. He saw a snippet of memory of a happy child playing in a sunny Chicago park with his mom close by. He caught snippets of life before the kaiju, set in the softness of the winter sun, of family dinners and boring days at school, against the backdrop of a quiet band room, hopes and dreams abandoned.

"Patrick, don't chase the rabbit. Don't do it. Push through it, let it go." 

He found himself standing next to Patrick in front of a mailbox in a nicely manicured lawn in a Chicago suburb that didn't look that much different from his own. Patrick held an envelope in his hand that had the distinctive stamp of the draft letters. 

"Why did you enlist, Pete? You didn't have to do this, be here." Patrick asked, fear and anger clear in his eyes.

Pete's memory of waking up drunk and afraid the morning after the first kaiju attack flitted by, felt but not torn open.

"I don't know. I was bored, stuck. Figured I might as well do something worthwhile with my life." Pete shrugged, but knew that Patrick understood.  
"Yeah, well, I didn't want this. I had plans, Pete. I was going to go places after I graduated, do things with my music. Not this." Patrick said, frowning at the letter in his hand.

Patrick looked up at him, and Pete felt him relax his hold on the memory and realized that Patrick hadn't actually been blindly chasing the rabbit, he'd shown the memory to him on purpose. In that moment they were alone together, their broken hopes and dreams, their anger, sadness, fear, and loneliness filling the space between them as snippets of memories from the last few weeks at base flowed past them, ignored. The connection settled around them and together they opened their eyes, in sync.

"Neural handshake strong, really strong, simulation commencing." Joe said, sounding impressed. 

Pete and Patrick lifted their feet in unison as they jogged through the city, towards the kaiju rising out of the sea. They caught up to it on the outskirts of the city, firing a barrage of missiles causing it to roar in pain. It wasn't enough to bring it down though, just enough to make it angry. 

The beast lowered it's head and charged at them, and they surged forward to meet it, careful to keep away from it's strong tail, trying to duck under to land a punch to it's belly. 

The kaiju ended up gripping an arm in it's talons and throwing them before continuing it's charge towards the city. 

They landed in an uncoordinated heap in the sand, but recovered quickly. They followed it's path of destruction back into the city, and this time Pete didn't worry about civilians, because Patrick was there, his own conviction that it was ok soothing his concern. Instead, they focused on cornering the beast, as Joe fed them information on it's location. The jaeger's left arm was outfitted with a strong cannon, and Patrick intended to use it. He channeled his anger, using it to fuel their fight. As they gained on the creature, separated only by a block of tall buildings, they raised their left arms, priming the canon as they rounded the building separating them. The blast fired into the kaiju as it lunged at them, knocking it back, sending up a spray of sparks and shattered glass. 

They pressed the advantage, firing again, severing one of its clawed arms at the elbow. Patrick finally agreed it would be ok to engage in close combat, and they descended on the screaming kaiju, fists beating out a steady rhythm that kept the beast scrambling back, off kilter. Pete found that while he was the more athletic of the two, Patrick had a fantastic sense of rhythm, and had a great sense for when to fire, duck, or press in with a punch. Together they grasped it's other arm, wrenching it away from the kaiju's body, where fell, it useless. It's tail slammed towards them, but they rolled into the hit, letting it propel them above the beast, using their momentum to push it back into another building, firing another plasma bolt into the beast's neck, rendering it a twitching mess. They fired again, and it stopped moving.

"I think, I think we're good. It's down." Pete said, a grin spreading across his face.  
"Holy smokes, we did it." Patrick said, eyes wide.

Pete felt his shock through their neural handshake and reached out towards the other recruit, physically grabbing his hand, and trying to send him his own excitement mentally.

"Hell yeah! You were awesome!" Pete said.  
"Oh my god, Patrick, Pete, that was the coolist shit I have ever seen! Do you know what your drift compataility is?" Joe said, rushing into the simulator.   
"Does it matter?" Patrick asked, confused.  
"Of course it does!" Pete said.  
"Dude, yes! I've never seen a score this high! You guys are at 93%! 93%!!!" Joe said, gesturing wildly.  
"Holy shit, Patrick, you have to be my copilot." Pete said, looking at Patrick with stars in his eyes.  
"Oh no, no, no, no. I am no pilot. This is a one time thing Pete! You promised!" Patrick said, reaching out and slamming the button to sever the neural connection, leaving both of them gasping for a moment.  
"Patrick! 93%! We are awesome together! Please, just give this a chance." Pete pleaded, struggling out of the rig.  
"No, I'm going to be a control room tech. I've already submitted my request for the mos, and my advisor is confidant it'll be apporved. This was just a one time thing, a stupid mistake. I'm sorry Pete, I can't." Patrick said, clearly panicing as he pulled himself out of the rig, just a bit faster than Pete. 

Patrick scooped up his hat and was out the door faster than Pete could follow, despite both Pete and Joe's protests. 

"93%! Joe, this is awesome! Now we just need to find a fourth pilot!" Pete said, still looking starry eyed.  
"Dude, did you miss the part where Patrick said no?" Joe asked, looking down at Pete like he'd lost his mind.  
"Yeah, but he didn't really mean it. He's just panicing," Pete said with a shrug, "Patrick doesn't do change very well I don't think, he likes to be in control. That's cool though. He's good at it. He'll come around."  
"Ok. If you say so. Um, I'm pretty sure our hour is up, and we just lost our sim tech..." Joe said, giving up the rest of the session as a lost cause.

Pete found himself smiling the rest of the evening, happier than he had been in a long time. He felt sure now that he would get a four chance at becoming a jaeger pilot, with Patrick at his side. For his part, Patrick spent the rest of the night hiding in his bunk with a book, trying to study for his courses, furious at himself for letting Pete Wentz under his skin and in his head. That night, in the wee hours of the morning, both of them had dreams of the other's memories, much to Patrick's horror and Pete's delight. 

The whole base was buzzing with rumors the next morning, and Pete just grinned, confidant and happy, assuring anyone that asked that he'd found his copilots, but refusing to say more than that. He slid into a seat next to Joe at the mess hall for breakfast, and looked around for Patrick, smile dimming when the other recruit was nowhere to be seen. Joe just rolled his eyes at him and guzzled his coffee, trying to mask the tastelessness of the oatmeal. 

Patrick was successfully able to avoid Pete and Joe at breakfast, his stomach feeling too upset with nerves to eat much of anything anyways. He couldn't avoid them forever, however; as he was called out of his first class and into the co's office by 9:00. Pete and Joe were called in as well. Turns out, Patrick hadn't thought ahead and had forgotten that the computer logged every practice run in the simulator, and these were accessible to all of the trainers, evaluators, and the brass in general. A 93% score was not something that they were about to ignore, particularly from two promising recruits. 

Patrick was not happy to have the head of the base assign him to be Pete's copilot for the trials, with Joe on reserve. They would be putting him in the simulator with Joe as well of course, but thought it was promising. The trio was also tasked with finding a fourth member so they could make up a four man unit. Pete had run trials with a large number of the potential pilot recruits, so they wanted Patrick and Joe to meet with the recruits who had the highest scores with Pete, and with those Joe had high scores with. 

It took a little over a week, but Pete (with some help from Joe) was finally able to convince Andy Hurley, his old Arma Angelus bandmate, to get in the simulator with him. Andy had resisted because he had already found a few people that he had decent dc with, but Pete just knew that he’d do better with them. Sure enough, Andy scored some of his highest compatibility numbers with the three, and after he’d drifted in the simulation with each of them he had to admit that it felt right. Andy wanted to help save the world, and even though he was a pacifist, he realized that something had to be done to defend their world, so he didn’t feel bad about stepping into a jaeger. Together, the four formed a formidable group. When they graduated a few weeks either, they were all assigned to a unit together, and two jaegers were commissioned for them, Fall Out Boy and Folie a Deux. 

 

 

Post Script: 

Drifting together had some odd, unintended side effects thanks to the ghosting being in close contact with someone else's mind left on another's. The effects grew for Pete and Patrick over time. 

One morning over breakfast in the mess hall in the New Jersey shatterdome had Patrick blushing. He'd been up late the night before, working on a piece of music, and he was up earlier than he'd like to be. He sat at one of the crowded tables, surrounded by his friends, absently drinking his coffee and munching on dry toast, trying to read through a report. He hadn't realized he'd toed his foot out of one of his heavy boots, and he definitely didn't register pushing it forward to slide up the long legs of the pilot sitting across from him, settling into his crotch.

He became aware of the situation as Mikey squirmed against his foot, becoming hard under Patrick's gentle caress. Patrick looked up, blinking in surprise at the sight of Mikey’s pink cheeks and almost fell off of the bench in his haste to draw back as realization hit him.

Andy grabbed his arm, catching his fall, and Patrick mumbled what he hoped was a convincing yes when asked if he was ok and struggling to shove his foot back into his boot. Mikey, unflappable as ever, only raised an eyebrow at him. A moment later, however, he was shoving Mikey’s socked foot out of his lap. This time Patrick left the table, taking his coffee with him.

He didn't feel bad for being cranky with Pete that day, and after a whispered conversion with Mikey, Pete didn't seem to mind. Mikey knew Patrick wasn't really interested, it seemed like the whole base knew he was interested in Elisa, the cute blonde tech who worked on his Jaeger. It was still embarrassing though.

Patrick wasn't the only one feeling the effects. He caught Pete humming an Elvis Costello song in the shower, a song they both knew he'd never actually listened to. Pete became much better at playing the bass, though he swore that it was due to practice rather than anything gleaned from Patrick's knowledge of the guitar. 

There were days when Pete felt a self conscious urge to hide under a hat, uncomfortable and shy. On those days he made sure to stick close to Patrick, telling his copilot in word and deed that he was one amazing dude.


End file.
